A “Challenging” Weekend Ahead!

I learned via Katherine’s blog (The Writerly Reader) of a new to me challenge coming up this weekend. It’s called the 24in48 Readathon (see http://24in48.com). It’s kind of a less hard-core version of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon. In this one, participants are given 48 hours on the clock to get their 24 hours of reading done. Ah, SLEEP is possible!🙂

My plan, though, is not necessarily to log 24 hours of reading, but to complete twenty-four selected short stories. AND, as host of the Annual Deal Me In short story reading challenge, I feel I should assign the stories to the 24 playing cards (drawing them one at a time to randomize my reading order) in a euchre deck. (Euchre is a very popular card game in the U.S. Midwest and Canada, but if you’re not familiar with the rules and are interested, look here)

I plan to write a few posts with very brief summaries of the stories and how I rate them. I think I will count my post-writing time toward my 24 hours too (although this may be bending the rules!) Maybe I’ll write one post for each “hand” of five cards that I deal and one for “the widow” (the remaining four “unused” cards in a hand of euchre)

I’m really itching to get started.🙂 The problem I ran into with ‘readathons’ in the past was I’d get stuck reading a book that was a bit of a slog and stubbornly wouldn’t switch (it’s not in my nature to quit). With short stories, you just have to tough it out for a few pages and move on to the next one.

I grew up in Michigan, but have lived in Virginia for seven years, so I love seeing the reference to euchre. Stone Mattress was one of my favorite collections last year and you have some of the best stories left on your list – enjoy!

Thanks! I only have the story “I Dream of Zenia…” Left from Stone Mattress, no it’s the one I was most looking forward to since I enjoyed The Robber Bride so much a couple years back. Atwood is amazing!